Author Archives: "Vernon Felton"

When I left home, mostly to find work and to date someone I wasn’t related to, I left my community behind. I was lost. I had friends and family, but something was missing. It wasn’t until I found mountain biking and the people who make mountain biking happen that I felt at home again. My community was no longer a physical location. It was a common interest with no fixed address.

What is the meaning of mountain biking? In this continuing Kitsbow video series, we explore what it means to ride from the motivations and perspectives of those whose tireless efforts have lent the sport meaning and inspiration to our own lives. In this second chapter, we head to the arid hills of Kern County to learn about what mountain biking means to Brien Chartier: the BLM Ranger tasked with policing the region’s public wilderness lands.

In this video, Breckenridge local and pro rider, Kevin Soller, takes you on a tour of B-Line, a trail that’s part of the town’s trail network (the Breckenridge Freeride Park was one of the first municipally-funded parks in the country), which extends from downtown and is used to access spectacular high-mountain singletrack such as that along the Colorado Trail, Guyot loop, Wheeler Trail and many, many more.

Race Face will soon offer 35-millimeter diameter bars and stems across several of their lines. Sixc, Next, Atlas and Turbine bars and stems will soon be available in the extra-wide diameter that Easton popularized with their Havoc 35 line.

Jerome Clementz and Ben Cruz give us an update on the race season at the calendar’s halfway point. Great cinematography, ripping music, beautiful locations and some incredible riding scenes make this a must see.

We recently had a chance to get up close and personal with Mission Workshop’s upcoming Acre Series Trail Pack. Here’s a quick rundown on both the pack and Mission Workshop’s very cool testing protocol.

Much ink has been spilled in praise of Jackson Hole, but if these photos are any indication, this place ain’t even close to being over-hyped. Photographer Craig Grant and the rest of the Yeti Cycles crew took a road trip to the Grand Tetons and came back with these outstanding images.

How good are the trails outside of Jackson Hole? The team from Yeti Cycles took a road trip to find out. This video tells the story. A lot of folks are going to suddenly be filled with a desire to relocate to Wyoming…

What do you do when you open your fridge and all you find is OJ, Cola, Purple Stuff and an empty craft beer growler? You pull out your 2014 Norco Bigfoot Fatbike, put the growler in your Growler Cage and go for a ride through Vancouver’s iconic North Shore trails until you reach the Deep Cove Brewery and Distillery.

Here’s a 15-minute documentary on the annual Megavalanche in Alpe d’Huez, France. A couple hundred racers bombing down a glacier and descending nearly 9,000 feet through handlebar-high ruts, rocks, slush, ice and general mayhem–the Megavalanche is always riveting to watch.

Mark Weir is an icon. He’s the tough man of modern mountain biking. The grimacing guy, charging down an ugly stretch of trail at ungodly speeds. The guy who kept pronouncing The Coming of Enduro long before anyone even took the notion seriously. Mark Weir, however, is a hell of a lot more complicated–and interesting–than any and all of that.